Minister quizzed on digital migration row

ICT Secretary Fred Matiang’i (left). There will be no more bad blood between broadcasters and the government after communication laws are amended, the CS has said. PHOTO DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP |

What you need to know:

  • Mr Nicholas Gumbo (Rarieda, ODM) said the attitude of the two public officers throughout the process and at the press conferences they have called to address the issue has been a cause of concern.
  • “We have acted fairly, have been very consultative and in an in-camera session I would share the information that shows that their level of dishonesty is incredible,” he told the MPs.
  • Ms Esther Gathogo (Ruiru, TNA) told the CS that some of her constituents had dumped their TV sets at her office because they could not watch programmes and could not afford set top boxes.

Information Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Communications Authority boss Francis Wangusi were Tuesday challenged by MPs to explain the cause of the stalemate between the government and the three leading broadcasters over the digital migration.

Dr Matiang’i and Mr Wangusi were criticised for their attitude towards the broadcasters, the allocation of the bulk of a national resource to a foreign company and the protracted battle that has forced the television stations with 90 per cent of the audience to shut down transmission on some platforms.

Mr Nicholas Gumbo (Rarieda, ODM) said the attitude of the two public officers throughout the process and at the press conferences they have called to address the issue has been a cause of concern.

“Your attitude appears laden with flippancy and bullishness… Why are you so angry? This is a public duty you are discharging. Why are you not dispassionate?” asked Mr Gumbo, a member of the Energy, Information and Communication Committee of the National Assembly.

He said Dr Matiang’i’s argument that only three of the 43 registered TV stations were not working and that this, therefore, was not a big deal, did not make much sense.

Mr Gumbo said this was tantamount to arguing that in a case where Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service is not working, customers would have many other options yet M-Pesa is the biggest.

Mr Muthomi Njuki (Chuka-Igambangombe, TNA) said if the media houses went along with what the government wants, they would end up handing over their content to third parties.

Moyale MP Roba Duba questioned the assertion that the digital migration must take place by June 17, saying that like the Millennium Bug at the turn of the century, it could be exaggerated.

He asked the officials to contextualise the migration to the situation in Kenya and then decide on a middle ground to solve the current impasse.

“The position is that we are in a crisis and we must get the full information to make decisions,” said Mr Duba.

DUMPED THEIR TVs

Ms Esther Gathogo (Ruiru, TNA) told the CS that some of her constituents had dumped their TV sets at her office because they could not watch programmes and could not afford set top boxes.
Dr Matiang’i told the committee that his statements on the matter arose from his experience in managing the process over the past two years.

He said Kenya had signed the agreement under the International Telecommunication Union and must migrate broadcasting from the analogue platform by June 17.

He described the messages from the Nation Media Group, the Standard Group and Royal Media Services to the public as “inaccurate and intended to distort the reality” but admitted that trust between the organisations and the government had been eroded.

He asked the committee to organise a private meeting without the media and the public, so that he could speak more candidly about the ministry’s frustrations with the three media houses.
“We’ll be smiling soon and we’ll have a migration party soon,” said Dr Matiang’i.

According to him, more than 1,000 jobs, 239 of them in one media house alone, had been created because of the migration since last December.

“We have acted fairly, have been very consultative and in an in-camera session I would share the information that shows that their level of dishonesty is incredible,” he told the MPs.
“We will be firm and insist that we’re going to go with what the regulator has decided. That boat has sailed,” he said.

Most of the MPs who spoke asked Dr Matiang’i to take a middle ground but he insisted that digital migration would go on.

Some MPs supported the stand taken by the regulator, arguing that asking for an extension of the deadline would not be beneficial.

Committee chairman Jamleck Kamau said the team would meet the three media houses separately and decide on whether a joint meeting would necessary to listen to both sides.

Meanwhile, the Senate is today expected to suspend normal business to discuss the stalemate over digital migration as a matter of national concern.

Senators made the decision yesterday as Dr Matiang’i was being questioned by the National Assembly.